Amazon.com Top 100 Books of the Millenium

Our story begins, to my amazement (and consternation), some twenty years
ago. I was a sophomore at Colgate and, if memory serves (which is
doubtful), it was a Monday night in February. I and some fellow fraternity
brothers adjourned to the basement for a long night of Television and a
few frothy beverages. To our chagrin, we found an elder Brother seated
before the TV and a Hallmark Hall of Fame special about to begin.
None of us had ever heard of that night's special presentation--callow
youths that we were, we had hoped for an episode of Solid Gold--but
Joe
Doggett, the sage who had staked a claim, told us to sit down and shut
up. We sat slack-jawed for the next two hours as Les
Miserables, starring Richard Jordan and Anthony Perkins, unfolded before
us and claimed our rapt attention. Suffice it to say, we were all
amazed at this great story that we'd never even heard of, a story which
by itself justifies the existence of France.. I ran out the next
day to get the book, but was put off by its elephantine girth.

Flash forward a few years and the story had been turned into the much
ballyhooed Musical--now everyone was reading it. In fact, we had
a beach house at the Jersey shore and Tim Dowling decided it was the perfect
beach book. He'd tote the thousand-plus-page tome down to the beach
every day, read two pages and fall fast asleep. But you see, that's
the kind of book it is--the narrative is so long and digresses so often
that it must certainly qualify as one of the most put-downable books of
all time. I finally did manage to mule through the whole thing, and
buried within it is the great story we saw that night on television, but
you've got to dig pretty deep to find it.

So, when it came time to review the book for the site, I admit I resorted
to an abridged
version. The translation and abridgment is by James K. Robinson
and I highly recommend it. Gone are the endless pages on farming
techniques and the like, along with the lengthy description of Waterloo,
by the end of which you simply had no idea what was going on in the battle.
What remains is just the classic story of the convict Jean Valjean: his
redemption; his rise in society; his repeated flights from the relentless
Inspector Javert; his love for Cosette; and his Oedipal rivalry with
young Marius for Cosette's affection.

Even if you don't know the story, you've encountered it before; most
famously, the TV series The Fugitive borrowed freely from the plot, even
down to naming the police pursuer Gerard. I mentioned in my Man
With the Golden Arm review the similarities that book shares with this
one. The one great weakness that they share is the over sympathetic
view of the poor in general and criminals specifically. But more
instructive for our purposes are the differences. Chief among
these is that, whereas Algren and Richard Wright in Native Son (see
Orrin's
review) have the lower class milieu, the oppressive law enforcement
and the manhunt down pat, only Hugo includes the element of redemption.
For all his reputation as a writer of the Left, there is something profoundly
conservative in the arc of Jean Valjean's life. First Monseigneur
Bienvenu in saving Valjean makes it clear that he is performing, not simply
a good deed but, a Christian act:

Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to
evil, but to good. It is your soul that I buy from
you; I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit
of perdition, and I give it to God.

It's hard to imagine authors of the modern Left: writing favorably of
a cleric; believing that men have souls; or, acknowledging that criminal
behavior is evil. Then, although his ill-gotten wealth gives him
an obvious head start, Valjean is able to start a business and succeed
largely on the basis of a new idea and the sweat of his brow. Finally,
Hugo presents a fairly non-materialistic view of the world and of human
happiness. Of course, it helps to have his wealth to fall back on,
but Jean Valjean is not made happy by the worldly goods he gains through
means both legal and extralegal, his true happiness comes when he experiences
human love for the first time, with Cosette. In fact, the heroic
actions of the novel consistently require the actor to give up or endanger
wealth and position in order to sacrifice for others. Bienvenu, Javert
and Valjean all have their moments of transcendence when they act completely
selflessly. For me at least, it is these moments that really make
the book. I can still recall the scene in the TV movie, lo those
many years ago, when Valjean, risking discovery by Javert, lifts the horse
cart off of a man who is being crushed. Melodramatic sure, but isn't
that what you want from a novel?

Comments:

This show is my absolute favourite from among those I really want to see. To me, Les Miz is theatre! Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to come and watch the play because my mom brought me to the hospital. I was sick that day. My classmates told me that the sets are stunning, the Astrodome is wide enough to occupy the students, and the actors brought the story to life with the perfect tone.

I know a little about the story of Les Miserables so I consider Les Miserables to be the finest and greatest play. The show was excellent; the actors were brills especially the little Cosette played by Bianca Sivelleja, what a voice. Les Misérables production was, without a doubt, the best. That they were able to pull it off at all is a small miracle, but that fact that our students performed it with such skill, passion, and depth is truly astounding. The memories of this show will, I hope, linger with the students and community for a long time to come.